to download the Day 6 PDF. - The Hollywood Reporter

Tommila takes
aim with the help
of Helander.
NewsstaNd at
production facilities at Bavaria Studios and the south German state’s new
funding scheme for international co-productions.
“We didn’t realize how dramatic the scenery would be. It really made
the project a big, cinematic event,” says Clarke. “The Bavarian vistas, the
mountains, ended up being our second-billed star. We ending up shooting
the whole film in Germany and have no regrets. Bavaria Studios is one of
those great secrets people don’t know about.”
For decades, Munich’s Bavaria Studios had been flaunting Wolfgang
Petersen’s Das Boot and The NeverEnding Story as its biggest and most
recent credits, but it had remained way behind its competitors in Berlin
and Cologne when it came to offering the kind of subsidies that draw in big
international productions. But with its new subsidy scheme, it is now in
the position to offer up hard cash to visiting shoots. Big Game was the first
project to benefit from the Bavaria International Fund. That, together with
subsidies from the Finnish Film Fund, presales to Entertainment One in
the U.K., Ascot Elite in Germany and Nordisk for Scandinavia and a dose
of equity, allowed Altitude to put together the budget to make the film a
theatrical proposition.
“That’s what’s needed for today’s market,” says Clarke, “and the distribution
partners we have are theatrically driven companies, so it was essential
for them. And we haven’t been silly about our pricing. We’ve left value on
the table for the distributors. The people that have prebought the film have
something very special.”
For Jackson — and director Helander — the only concession to the market
so far has been the demands to deliver a PG-13 title to appease those
buyers who want to sell Big Game to primetime broadcasters. That means
Helander might have to do without one of Jackson’s catchphrases: “Well,
we can’t swear so much,” he explains. “I’m trying to put one ‘motherf—er’
into the film, but they keep saying that I can’t.”
Which leaves Jackson — bruised, battered and beaten — to walk the
aisles of the plane in near-silence, first stepping through ankle-deep water
(that contains neither snakes nor eels), then diving through one of the
lower levels. He doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself. Far less than his young
co-star Onni Tommila, who appears perfectly content swimming underwater,
hardly hampered by the archer’s bow on his back and showing the
most powerful man in the world how it’s done.
Then, after three takes, it’s a wrap for the day. Tomorrow will bring a
reversal, as the final fight scenes are to be shot — and it will be up to the
president to save the day and kill the villain. The kid could probably do
it, too, using the aforementioned bow — but that would most likely kill
the PG-13 as well. A well-hidden “motherf—er” in the finished film seems
much more likely.
NOw OPeN
Tom Bradley
InT ernaTIonal TermInal
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